A Body-Surrounding Study In Physical, Virtual and Mental Spaces

My purpose with this text is to recuperate the theme of the spatial condition to the field of architectural theory. The spatial condition has been in general a secondary protagonist in the theory of architecture where, traditionally, the aesthetic and technological appreciation of buildings has by far dominated over their appreciation as spatial structures endowed with symbolic and use values that come from the way space is experienced. This spatial dimension of architecture is acknowledged, and has its performance scrutinized, in the work of different authors, from the end of the nineteenth century on. The work presented in what follows aims at circumscribing what is specific in this architectural knowledge and, moreover, to show that the theories given by these authors present a conceptual convergence, and often coincidence, so configuring today a clearly identifiable line of research. Yet this review has not the ambition of exhausting the variety of literature that has dealt with this subject. In fact, more important than these authors is the way the concepts they have presented, during this last century, have become articulated in the formulation of a theory of space. Moreover the ambition here is to raise in the reader -architect, researcher or student -the curiosity for the knowledge about the way spatiality works in architecture.

Environment & Behavior, 2003

Human activity takes place in space. To act effectively, people need mental representations of space. People’s mental representations of space differ from space as conceived of by physicists, geometers, and cartographers. Mental representations of space are constructions based on elements, the things in space, and the spatial relations among them relative to a reference frame. People act in different spaces depending on the task at hand. The spaces considered here are the space of the body, the space around the body, the space of navigation, and the space of graphics. Different elements and spatial relations are central for functioning in the different spaces, yielding different mental representations.

Professional Geographer, 1999

As we move about and interact in the world, we keep track of different spaces, among them the space of navigation, the space immediately around the body, and the space of the body. We review research showing that these spaces are conceptualized differently. Knowledge of the space of navigation is systematically distorted. For example, people mentally rotate roads and land masses to greater correspondence with global reference frames, they mentally align roads and land masses, they overestimate distances near the viewpoint relative to those far from it. These and other distortions indicate that the space of navigation is schematized to elements and spatial relations relative to reference frames and perspective. The space around the body is organized into a mental framework consisting of extensions of the major axes of the body. Times to report objects around the body suggest that the relative accessibility of the axes depends on their perceptual and functional properties and the relation of the body to the world. Finally, times to verify named or depicted body parts indicate that body schemas depend on perceptual and functional significance. Thus, these spaces (and they are not the only ones important to human interaction) differ from one another and are not conceptualized as Euclidean. Rather they are schematized into elements and spatial relations that reflect perceptual and conceptual significance. Key Words: cognitive map, body schema, mental model, spatial thinking.

Each person has a different perception of the reality surrounding them. The same group of objects, the same spaces are judged according to different reference systems, they are connected differently, they have different meanings. Each person re-creates their own world, by collating different bits of objective reality into a personal space - or a place. Thus, before discussing the qualities of private versus public space, there is a fundamental aspect worth discussing, and this is the concept of space itself. Space - which is considered to be a homogenous and unorganised entity, as it will be shown - has the ability to become a place - a meaningful, organised and well defined entity. Therefore, a large variety of theories has been issued, in order to explain this shift in quality, which defines the process of turning a space into a place. Following the same chain of thoughts, this paper proposes an analysis which will try to match three different interpretations of the abovementioned process - Yi-Fu Tuan’s interpretation of space as movement and place as repose, Edward Soja’s Thirdspace theory, and Doreen Massey’s understanding of space as a process - to a matching number of spatial - artistic or architectural - experiments. The aim of this exercise is to discuss how these three particular theories can be applied or translated into actual projects and how can the projects themselves alter or recalibrate the perception of the space-place relationship itself - be it a public or private one. After all, each theory should find its echo in a practical endeavour.

Human corporeal architecture is responsible for the definition of reality as we know it. Interacting with the surrounding environment with his body the human being defines that environment in spatial terms and simultaneously defines his own body-image. Placing himself in space he acknowledges not only his own corporeal identity but also assumes himself as classifier of a subjective reality whose elements are defined, given meaning and hierarchy by him. Keywords: sensorial influx, mental representations, corporeal identity, consciousness, reality

Environment, Space, Place, 2021

This article correlates the physical composition of the built environment with social interactions and human relationships. The resulting framework draws on an embodied cognitive position through interdisciplinary knowledge with priority given to architectural theory and cognitive linguistics. This approach does not address idiosyncratic, phenomenological descriptions of experiences of place but the potential relationship of human bodies through situated semantics suggested by spatial composition. In this article we ask how the physical arrangement of a space can provide information for analyzing the probable social relations such as positions of hierarchy, power, and authority. We identify two theoretical models, namely latent embodied cognitive operations and space as a situated concept, which can be used to correlate physical arrangements with social meaning.

2006

Space is perceived by cognitive operations in which particular elements are assigned spatial significance. Such operations are relatively similar to digitalization processes. An element’s attributes are translated to numerical data according to measuring systems and scales, so that they can be evaluated comparatively. Similarly, elements of the given world are perceptible as sensory stimulations that are registered to the sensory organs and then translated to data, which is comparable to the data of other elements. Sensory stimulators may derive from any element that is registered to the sensory organs, even those which we call as “virtual”, “artificial” and “fake,” for example the elements that are rendered digitally in the computer. With such a premise, the paper examines how such elements may also contribute in the formation of spatial perception. Consequently, the meaning as well as our common interaction with space is contested, along with the limits of reality itself.

Space, Time & the Human Margin: A Way of Understanding Sacred Architecture Through Participation in Spatial & Temporal Symbolism., 2022

An understanding of the sacred architecture of the various traditions can be approached from two complementary but opposite poles, either from the perspective of an offering toward God or as a sacred place for the approach and encounter with God. The central aim of the thesis is to explore the latter pole by making participation in the encounter central and intelligible. The relationship between the tripartite modes of being, of body, soul (mind) and spirit interacting with architecture, in what could be called the 'architectural-event', has not found specific elaboration, or been a primary focus, of the Traditionalist School who espouse the 'Sophia Perennis'. This dissertation will argue that sacred architecture can be experienced and understood as a venue for this architectural-event via various modes of participation, including participation in symbolism. While this dissertation will focus on traditional knowledge to explore participation, there are some contemporary modes of thinking, including but not limited to, phenomenology and hermeneutic theory, that while approaching limited human modes of being as the singular state of the individual body and sometimes extending to the mind and memory, do have a trajectory that allows an opening into the sacred that is not antithetical to the approach of the Traditionalist School. Further, there is an opportunity to integrate such perspectives of participation into the examination of sacred architecture. An integrated view of participation takes into account not only how such ideas are included in the discussion and knowing about sacred architecture but, more importantly, how it can be individually experienced as a whole rather than a part of the human being by all participants, believers and non-believers alike. The dissertation contributes to existing knowledge by elaborating more integrated understanding of the experiences of participation in sacred architecture and providing a method of study and integration. This may prove of value to investigating other kinds of interaction with all architecture and, possibly, of architectural environments more generally.

Proceedings of the 12 th Space Syntax Symposium , 2019

Body, as a whole of senses, can be defined as a receptor due to its inherent features as perceiving, experiencing and having potentials of behavior. At the same time, body generates and transforms a new type of space within the space it exists. Besides, space is not positioned as a passive element either; it is the equal and active partner of the body that can shrink and expand with bodily effects. Therefore, body and the space in relation cannot be thought separately. They identify each other over and over again. The living body is inevitably garbled with the environment it lives, and it creates its own space. The "tension" between body and space appears as the leading actor of their interrelation. This research is based on an experimental case study that aimed to discover the body-space tension by using syntactic analyzes, which was prepared for an undergraduate course entitled "Architectural Morphology" in Istanbul Technical University, 2017. It differs from the idea that regards space only as a physical shell and aspires to analyze the space that the body identifies and experiences with the senses, by using both cognitive and analytical methods. ITU Faculty of Architecture, Taşkışla Building, was chosen as the field of study. Within this context, the principal questions were the following: What is the possible movement pattern of Taşkışla? / How can this pattern vary with the bodily experience? / What is the meaning of this variation for body-space tension? / How does Space Syntax contribute to analyzing this tension, as a scientific method? / How does bodily experience, cognitive maps and space syntax contribute to each other? As a first step to study, to discover how bodies restructure the space, a performative experience in Taşkışla was recorded. The movements and traces of the performers" bodies were conceptualized as a new type of space which the body created by changing the routine use of their bodies, changing the everyday movement pattern and thinking their bodies as a receptor. Performers investigated the space by their bodies throughout a particular route in the building. The process is followed by externalizing the narratives of the performances as cognitive maps. To be able to search body-space tension, interpreted cognitive maps were compared with the analysis of routine movement by using syntactic tools. Having scientific and visual data on both cases, the properties of the space which are considered as invisible or non-discursive were made debatable. Different results from two separate cases on the same space showed us the substantial effect of body-space interaction. As a result of this study, indicating the dynamic relationship between body and space, it is understood the importance of layering the analysis for perceiving and conceptualizing the space. This multi-layered analyzing process can enhance the bodily way of knowing and syntactic methods, mutually. This research system that provides varied viewpoints can open up new horizons to think on a space.

What are some of the basic differences between the notions of place and space? This chapter attempts to partially answer this question through the identification and clarification of the distinction of two specific conceptions of place and space. The conception of place that is operative in this chapter emphasizes the embodied aspects of being in a place, that is, those aspects of embodiment that contribute to the senses in which the first person perspective is situated in a particular surrounding or environing world (Umwelt). I call this conception of place that emphasizes the bodily aspects of being in a place -environed embodiment. The conception of space, moreover, that is employed below is also specific. There are many different conceptions of space and the one used in this chapter is a geometric space of homogeneous systems of empty, univocal locations that is organized according to Euclidean planes, e.g., Isaac